Harrison Ford: 'I’d love to do another Indiana Jones'

73-year-old star reveals he would jump at chance to shoot one more whip-cracking adventure as the intrepid archaeologist, following Steven Spielberg’s hint at fifth outing

The seemingly evergreen Harrison Ford has revealed he remains keen on filming another Indiana Jones movie, despite having turned 73 this summer.

Ford, who will reprise his iconic role as sardonic space smuggler Han Solo in the upcoming new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, told Entertainment Weekly he had no qualms about pulling on Jones’s trademark fedora one more time.

“Yeah, I’d love to do another Indiana Jones,” said Ford, who was being interviewed for the US magazine’s new issue about The Force Awakens. “A character that has a history and a potential, kind of a rollicking good movie ride for the audience, Steven Spielberg as a director — what’s not to like?”

Spielberg signalled his interest in returning to direct a fifth Indiana Jones movie with Ford in the lead at the 2015 British Academy Britannia wards in Beverly Hills last month. In a taped speech to celebrate his star receiving the Albert R Broccoli Britannia award for worldwide contribution to entertainment, he told the actor: “I can’t wait to work with you on Indiana Jones 5. This is not an announcement, just my fervent hope.”

Producer Frank Marshall confirmed last month that a new Indiana Jones movie with Ford as lead was being considered. However, he indicated the movie would also be designed to set up future adventures for new heroes, in an echo of The Force Awakens’ dynamic.

“There’s a bunch of people who could probably take the baton,” Marshall told Total Film. “[But we are] not doing the Bond thing where we’re going to call somebody else Indiana Jones … we have to figure this out.”

The new Indiana Jones movie would most likely be set up at studio Disney, which bought all rights to the whip-cracking archaeologist’s adventures in its $4bn buyout of Star Wars production company Lucasfilm in October 2012. Fans will be hoping any new film improves upon 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which drew criticism for its use of CGI and the infamous “nuke the fridge” scene in which Indy survives a nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator.

Ford also revealed to Entertainment Weekly that his appearance in the recent trailer for The Force Awakens, in which the usually cynical Solo appears to finally believe in mystical Jedi powers such as the Force, did not constitute “an abandoning of the character”.

“He does not aspire to the position of Obi-Ben Kenobi, nor do I aspire to be some new age Alec Guinness,” he told the magazine. “His development is consistent with the character, and there are emotional elements which have occasioned his growth.”